Here's a little tip about gratuities

If you've ever used a coat check, you probably noticed a tip jar on the counter at evening's end.
You might stick a bill or two into that jar without even thinking about who is getting the tip. You probably assume the person behind the counter, usually a woman, is getting the money.
That's certainly what I always assumed. From now on, I'm going to ask.
In the last year, I have attended three charity events at Windows on the River, a banquet hall at the Powerhouse in the Flats. At the end of each dinner, I picked up my wrap at the coat-check counter.
One of those times, I pointed to the large tip jar bulging with bills and said to the weary clerk, "Well, at least you get a decent amount of tips for standing here."
She shook her head and said, "Oh, we don't get to keep those."
I thought I misheard her. "What?"
"We don't keep the tips."
"Who does?" I asked.
"Management."
When I asked her how that made her feel, she sighed. "They say they use it to give us a Christmas party."
Nowhere was there a sign indicating that the pile of bills in the tip jar was going, not to the clerk, but to management.
Recently, I attended another dinner at Windows on the River. This time, the tips were stuffed into a large, opaque box. I watched as one person after another shoved bills into the slot on the top.
"Who gets these tips?" I asked the coat-check clerk.
She resisted telling me, but I pressed. "Management," she said softly.
"How does that make you feel?" I asked.
She shrugged her shoulders. "Life isn't fair, right?"
This week, I called Kristine Jones, the general manager for Windows.
"Why are you asking about this?" she said. "Why do you care?"
The "girls," she insisted, are happy with the current arrangement. "It's not like they're standing there all night. The girls check the coats and then wait on tables until the last hour. And they're already paid an hourly wage."
Later that same day, two vice presidents -- Dave Grunenwald and Pat McKinley -- called on speakerphone from Jacobs International Management Co., which owns Windows.
"We're confused," Grunenwald said. "This is newsworthy?"
They were brimming with assurances. Their 30 or so employees -- some of the kindest, most professional servers I've ever encountered -- are paid more than the minimum wage. How much more, they wouldn't say. The company matches any 401(k) contribution they can make but offers no health insurance because they're all part time.
And they get a free meal. "Some places charge their employees for food," McKinley said.
Grunenwald and McKinley say they collect only $800 a year in that tip jar. Hard to believe, judging from the amount stuffed into the box last Friday night. "We match it for their Christmas party," Grunenwald said.
When I asked if they'd ever let the employees decide between keeping the tips and having a party, they fell silent.
That would be a "no."
"Why does this matter?" they asked.
Dignity is non-negotiable, writes scholar Vartan Gregorian. It is also every human's birthright, and management's blatant rankism at Windows is an assault on the dignity of all involved.
Generous patrons are misled. Hard-working employees must stand silently by as they watch management walk off with hundreds, perhaps thousands, of dollars intended for them.
"Maybe we need to rethink this," Grunenwald said. "Maybe we do," echoed McKinley.
There's no maybe about it. Both union and industry officials say keeping the coat-check tips is unacceptable.
General manager Jones was unrepentant. "I don't ever think about who's getting the tip when I use a coat check," she said. "I don't care."
Then she added, "I don't think anyone else cares who gets the tip, either."
I think she's wrong.
What do you think?
To reach this Plain Dealer columnist: cschultz@plaind.com, 216-999-5087

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